Big Brother 19 interview: Allison Grodner on Christmas’ injury, Den of Temptation

To say that this past week in the Big Brother 19 house was eventful would be making a HUGE understatement. We saw Megan Lowder leave the game, Christmas Abbott break her foot, and eventually Jillian Parker’s eviction in a close vote. It was intense, it was dramatic, and pretty much everything that you could possibly want in the first week of the game. You’ve got likable people, villains, and super-fun feeds to go along with it.

With so much chaos, you have to imagine that this was also an eventful week for executive producer Allison Grodner. In our weekly email Q&A (read the one from last week here), she explains how Christmas was cleared to return to the game, contingency plans for surprise exits, and also what they look for in twists like the Den of Temptation.

CarterMatt – How big of a concern was Christmas’ injury behind the scenes, and what was the process like ensuring that she was okay to re-enter the game?

Allison Grodner – Obviously, we are concerned when any houseguest is injured and want to do what is best for their health and safety. In 19 seasons of the show we have had minimal injuries and have never had anyone injured so badly that they had to leave the game. This is the first broken bone on Big Brother. Ultimately, it came down to a doctor saying that she was medically stable enough to return and her choice [was] to come back in and compete.

Did losing Megan this early in the game alter your plans for the season, or do you always have contingencies and flexibility as things happen in the house?

The only way we like to lose houseguests is through the front door on eviction night, but unexpected things happen and we are always prepared for that possibility.

The Den of Temptation proved to be a huge deal in the game this week. How did you and the team go about devising the right temptations and curses to go along with them?

A lot of thought and creativity go into game twists. We wanted to make sure that the temptations and curses were big enough to affect the game in a fun and dramatic way but not to completely alter the basic Big Brother game. After 19 seasons we want to create twists that the houseguests will never see coming and it was fun to come up with game pieces that have not been seen before.

Want more Big Brother 19 coverage?

For further news, including our morning and evening live-feed updates, be sure to visit the link here! We’ll also have a special article up later regarding nominations / possibly the latest Den of Temptation results; we also post reviews following every episode on CBS. (Photo: CBS.)